The best meals of our trip were in Melbourne, hands down. If you're ever there, check out Seamstress, a cutting-edge Asian-fusion place on the edge of Chinatown, and Flower Drum, which proves that high-end traditional Chinese dining really does exist, at least outside America.
We didn't eat as well in Sydney, but that had more to do with having so much else to do that we often found ourselves either on a tight schedule or choosing restaurants based on proximity rather than ratings. I'm quite sure we can do better next time.
Even Australian sommeliers tended to recommend New Zealand wines, and it's true that Australian wines are, from our limited sampling, more variable. Aromatic whites (Riesling, Pinot Gris) were generally a good bet. We had a stunning aged Shiraz (vintage 1997) for only A$10 a glass at Flower Drum, and while I'm sure more like that exist, they're hard to find.
The only rule of thumb I can offer is that the best wines we had (both red and white) tended to come from Victoria state. However, I'm not sure how readily available Victoria wines are in the United States. Victoria, the southernmost mainland state, has a coolish climate by Australian standards (I like cool-climate wines) but a relatively small wine industry.
Unlike Kiwis, Aussies tended more toward beer than wine in their bars. Toohey's and Boag's were two brands we liked.
Oddly enough, we didn't see Foster's for sale even once in any bar we visited.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment